Transparent Hearts
by InkedInCoffee
Summary: AU. Callie Torres moves to Seattle ready to run from her painful past. What she finds in the old house she has moved into will completely change her life and her heart.
1. Chapter 1

(AN: I do not own any Grey's Anatomy characters or anything that is from Shondaland.)

(AN: This story has no beta at the moment so all mistakes are mine and I apologize. This is sort of a teaser and I hope to update fairly regularly. Enjoy!)

Callie dropped the last cardboard box in the kitchen with an exasperated sigh before looking around. The entire bottom floor was covered in boxes that needed to be unpacked before she started work later that week. She had spent the better part of the last two weeks moving across the country for the best job opening she could have hoped for-the head of Orthopedics at Seattle Grace Mercy West hospital in Seattle. Even though she had only applied for an attendings position apparently word of her rock star status had gotten around and won her the higher ranking job. Although her attending position in Miami had been decent and her family had been close there were things there that she just couldn't face anymore. She wouldn't call it running, she was just "relocating".

"TORRES!" a obnoxiously loud male voice called from the front of the house, breaking her from her thoughts.

"I'm in the kitchen, hold on, Mark!" she called back. One of the reasons she was so glad to have moved to Seattle was that Mark was there. They had been friends since med school in Miami where they met at a party. He was an arrogant man-whore with close to no filter and she had hated him for months before he weaseled his way into her heart and became her closest confidant. When he had moved to Seattle they had kept in contact and when she landed this job he had found her this house last-minute.

Walking to the front of the house she could have sworn she heard some creaking on the vacant stairs but waved it off. This place was ancient, she would have to get used to the odd noises.

"Cal, we have to find some time to fix this place up. I still don't know why you wouldn't just move in with me." Mark told her running his hand through his blonde and lightly greying curls.

"I don't want to live in a place where I will constantly be running into your nightly conquests." she shrugged, "Besides, this place is great. I don't know how you found it for so cheap."

"Uh, because it's a dump?" he wrinkled his noise in disgust, choosing to ignore her jab about his sex life. "The owners said it was creepy and not worth the work it needs. I gotta agree, Cal, this place is gives me the creeps. I was only half serious about you living here."

"Whatever. I love it. Now get out of here so I can start unpacking, unless you want to help with that?" He started walking back towards his car shaking his head.

"Nope, but how about you let me take you out for a drink later?" The suggestive tone in his voice earned an eye roll.

"Not tonight, Mark, I have too much to do." She really wanted some alone time to take this whole move in, she hadn't really accepted it all just yet and getting drunk with Mark wasn't going to help.

"Whatever, but I'm stealing you for at least one night before you start-up at work. You'll make new friends and then who will be my wing man?"

"You didn't have anyone before I got here?"

Mark just shrugged before giving her a wave goodbye.

She shut the door and let out another sigh, pursed her lips and swept her eyes around. This house did need some work but there wouldn't be time for that so it would just have to do. She grabbed one of the boxes at the bottom of the stairs and took it up to the bedroom to at least get her clothes in the dresser. The floorboards creaked beneath her feet which slightly annoyed her so she pulled out her Ipod and decided to listen to music while she worked.

Her bedroom was perfect with a vaulted ceiling and giant windows that gave a perfect view of the Puget Sound. She made a couple of trips up and down the stairs to get all of her bedroom belongings. After an hour she had managed to unpack all her clothes and make her bed. Feeling successful she started dancing around the room, rolling her hips to the music blasting into her ears.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of gold, startled she paused her music and stared at the bedroom door. Nothing, of course there was nothing - she was alone! It was too soon to let this house freak her out. She was Callie Torres and an old house wasn't going to scare her. She turned her music back on and headed downstairs to tackle the kitchen and maybe even make a late lunch.

Callie couldn't remember ever buying this many appliances but she finally put them all up, put the remainder of her dishes away, and plugged in her coffeepot. She was going to need to buy a new one soon, this one had seen better days for sure.

Unpacking was exhausting but it kept her mind busy. This move had mostly been about the promotion but it was also an escape from Miami. An escape from the pain that was there and that she just couldn't handle anymore. She was tired of hurt and death. That made her laugh, a surgeon that was sick of death! She laughed even harder holding herself against the counter before she started to sob. Sliding down to the floor with her back against the cabinets she let the tears come. Everything hurt, it always hurt. The crying unleashed her desperate need to sleep and without meaning to she soon passed out on the kitchen floor.

Her face was cold, like a cool breeze focused solely on her face. In her half asleep haze she tried to brush it away. Now her hair was moving. Wait. Her hair was moving? She sprang up and looked around but there was nothing and suddenly the room was warmer. Maybe this place was creepy.

Callie pushed herself to her feet and made her way to the bed upstairs that was bound to feel better than the wooden floor she had just spent - she checked the time - three hours on. When she finally got under the covers and shut her eyes she felt a presence in the room but refused to open her eyes. Too many tricks today meant that she needed more sleep, she wasn't going to let her mind win anymore.

That was until she felt it again...that breeze. Only this time she knew it was real because it was tracing along the side of her face causing the most bizarre chills she had ever experienced. Callie quickly opened her eyes and mentally screamed.

There was a woman in her room, only there wasn't. She could see her but she could also see through her which made no sense at all. The woman stared at her with a look that was hard to place but seemingly came across as both confused and a bit angry.

"Great." the woman muttered, oblivious to Callie's knowledge of her.

"AHHHH!" Callie screamed-hallucinations didn't speak.

"AHHHH!" the woman screamed back and stumbled back against the wall nearest to the door.

"Who the hell..._What _the hell are you!?" Callie cried out. Her heart was in her throat now and she worried it was going to flop out and to the floor at any second.

The woman just stood there with wide eyes mirroring Callie's terrified look. She was oddly beautiful-at a quick glance Callie noticed her hair was blonde and fell just below her shoulders. Her face had soft features and wide blue eyes.

"You can see me?" she finally spoke.

"Yeah? Oh wait...this is a dream, right? The stress has finally got to me and now I'm dreaming or maybe I really am hallucinating because weird and attractive see-through women don't just appear in your bedroom unless it's dreams or something. So yeah, this is stress. You aren't real." Callie said in one breath and nodded. She then closed her eyes, pinched her arm, counted to ten, and opened them expecting a vacant room. The woman was still there, Callie let out a groan.

They stared at one another un-moving for a long time.

Finally the woman moved toward Callie but stopped before she got too close.

"Who are you?" Callie asked again, less frightened but ten times more confused.

The woman tilted her head. "Arizona...I'm Arizona. This is _my_ house."

Callie bit her lip and looked this Arizona up and down with a furrowed brow. After a moment she nodded to herself and then looked right into the transparent woman's eyes.

"You're dead?"

"Yeah."

(AN: If you are interested in beta-ing this story please let me know because I need one desperately!)


	2. Chapter 2

__(AN: Sorry for the long wait but here is the next chapter. This is a short one I know but they will be long in the future. Enjoy!)

(AN: Shout out to my beta shipsinthenight11)

_"You're dead?"_

_"Yeah."_

* * *

The silence that followed was tangible, creating a lump in Callie's throat. The sight before her battled with her rational mind and her head started pounding.

Arizona watched as Callie slowly got out of bed and started pacing the room, muttering to herself in Spanish, looking up at her with uneasy eyes every so often. The ghost crossed her arms and huffed. This entire day was all wrong. She had been planning on the usual noise making that she could manage to scare this one off too. That plan went out the window when she found herself stuck on the staircase ogling the Latina as she carried in an armful of boxes. She wasn't sure what it was that had her so transfixed. It might be that it had been too long since she was in such close proximity to a truly beautiful woman. A few hours of innocent watching never hurt, right?

When she had tried to get a good look at this new occupant earlier she had been interrupted but now was the perfect opportunity to stare. She found it almost hypnotic the way that this intruder's olive skin glowed, only to be complimented by her dark brown, almost black hair. She wanted so badly to run her fingers through that hair; she had tried earlier to no avail. It occurred to her that she still didn't know this woman's name. The annoying man from earlier had called her "Cal" but that seemed like an odd name. He had also said "Torres", definitely a Hispanic surname she noted.

"Is Cal short for something?" she asked, breaking Callie from her quiet musings.

"Uh, yeah it's Calliope but I go by Callie...wait, how did you...?"

"Earlier I heard that guy."

Callie tensed. She knew she had been hearing and seeing things but it only just occurred to her that she had been watched all day. This stranger had listened in on her conversation and had been watching her sleep?

"You were listening in on us?" Callie asked, she was starting to get agitated. This entire situation was hilariously ridiculous. A dead woman was in her house spying on her. If this was real she was seriously going to need to check herself into the nearest psychiatric clinic because clearly she had finally lost it.

"Well it is my house." Arizona snapped. Her earlier agitation with Callie seeping back. What she wanted…no, needed, was to be left alone. She had hoped that after the last couple moved out, the house would remain vacant.

"Last I checked, I owned it. The papers are in my name. Besides there is the whole 'you're dead thing.'" The brunette scoffed.

Arizona's jaw dropped and she gave a bitter laugh. "You're a real charmer, Calliope. Papers or no papers this is my house and I'm not going anywhere. Not that I want to be around for your sob fests."

Suddenly Callie's stomach dropped, she didn't think this apparent ghost had been there for her breakdown too. She felt embarrassed and ashamed that anyone had seen that, regardless of their mortality. She gave the blonde a hard look before she stormed out of the bedroom and down the stairs. The clock on the stove said that it was just after three in the morning, causing her to groan. The kitchen went cold, telling her she wasn't alone.

Without turning she shook her head at the floor. "Look, please just leave me alone. It's hard enough accepting that you are real and to be honest I'm hoping this is all a really fucked up dream. Just go."

It took a few moments but then the room was warm again and with that warmth came her ability to breathe. Everything was wrong and adding some supernatural mumbo jumbo to the mix would only make the impossible rock bottom even worse. She wiped her eyes and ran her fingers through her dark hair. She would go back to bed and when she woke up, everything would be normal. Ghosts weren't real, she just needed to clean up her new house and focus on her new life.

When she finally got the nerve to turn around there was no one there. There was a great sense of relief as well as an emptiness she couldn't quiet place.

Callie then climbed those creaking stairs again with both a heavy heart and a rattled mind. The physical strain of moving mixed with the confusion of the entity in her new home made falling asleep easy. It was almost noon when she finally woke up so she started a pot of coffee and set to unpacking the rest of the bottom floor. After a few uninterrupted hours, she wondered if the night before had actually been a dream. For a moment she contemplated calling out for Arizona to see if she would appear but no matter whether she did or didn't appear Callie knew it would be upsetting, so she kept quiet and worked.

It was so quiet that the sound of her cell phone ringing scared her half to death.

"Hey Mark"

"Hey, up for going out for drinks tonight?"

Callie sighed "How about this Saturday? I've been unpacking all day and I really just want to curl up on the couch."

"That's pathetic, Cal, but fine. As long as you promise we can go out Saturday. I want you to meet some people before you start work."

"I promise. You know...this house really is kind of creepy." She almost whispered. For some reason she was worried Arizona would hear her talking about their encounter.

"Yeah? Change your mind yet? You know I have a spare room." He sounded almost too happy, like an eager puppy.

"No, no matter how creepy this place is I plan to stay." she said this a little louder to get her point across after the near fight she had the night before. "I. Am. Staying."

"Okay, okay, geez, I was only offering."

"I'm sorry, Mark. Last night was rough and maybe Saturday night is exactly what I need. I'm going to go now. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Night."

"Night."

She hung up and trudged into the living room. She had finally unpacked the last of it but wouldn't have cable till tomorrow when they were scheduled to come install it. So tonight she would have to settle for a DVD. She popped in Legend and curled up on the couch. Not even halfway through the movie she felt her eyes getting heavy but the sudden chill in the room woke her right up.

She took a deep breath. "I know you're here."

Silence. Maybe she was crazy.

More silence.

"This is one of my favorite movies." Arizona animated on the opposite end of the couch.

"Shit, you scared me! You know, a less weird entrance would be nice." Callie glared at her, secretly glad it all hadn't been a dream.

Arizona just shrugged. "Takes the fun out of being a ghost. Why isn't there any popcorn?"

"Can you even eat popcorn?"

"No."

"Okay then why bother?"

"Shhh! My favorite part is coming up!" Arizona avoided the question pulled her knees up under her chin and starred at the screen.

A small smile pulled at Callie's mouth as she got up to make some popcorn, and for a moment the reality of how odd it was to be watching a movie with someone that had passed away escaped her mind. Instead, she felt better than she had in years.


	3. Chapter 3

The movie was coming to an end but Callie had spent the last half just staring at Arizona. As comforted as she was by her being there with her, there was still so much to discuss. The main thing that worried her was the ghost's earlier persistence that Callie needed to leave. She really hoped that it wouldn't become an issue because moving in with Mark was not something she ever wanted to resort to. No matter how great of a friend he was he just wasn't roommate material.

"Are you done staring at me?" Arizona turned to her with a knowing smirk.

"I wasn't I just...is this going to be an issue?"

"You staring at me? Nah."

"That isn't what I meant." Callie's voice was strained. Arizona turned towards her and motioned for her to continue.

"You seemed pretty determined to scare me out of here yesterday. I don't know if you've changed your mind." Callie began, obviously nervous and biting her lip.

Arizona let out a sigh. She was still so confused and hadn't really decided anything at all. On one hand she still wanted to be alone in her afterlife but on the other, no one else had really seen her since her death and it just felt so right.

"Look, I don't know." Arizona shrugged. "I thought I wanted to be alone but I guess you can stay. It doesn't seem like I have much of a choice. But I'm not leaving!"

"No! No...once I start work this upcoming Monday you probably won't even see me that much. I'm a surgeon so my hours are pretty hectic and-"

"You're a surgeon?" Arizona cut her off with a strangled tone.

"Yeah, I am." Callie sat up, if she was proud of anything it was her profession. She had put her everything into being the rock star that she was and while she never let her success truly get to her head, she was proud of herself.

She noticed how silent Arizona had become while she was in her own mind. The blonde looked torn and Callie half considered reaching out to comfort her. She kept pushing away how strange this all was, in fact despite her many questions she was completely comfortable.

"Are you...okay?" the brunette asked. Her tone was awkward, how do you ask someone that's dead if they are okay? Surely that was rude or-

"Yeah. Thanks. Anyways, I suppose I don't mind you being here especially since I'll have the place to myself a lot. I'm sorry about how I acted yesterday but the whole "dead thing" as you put it is sort of a sore subject, believe it or not."

"Can I ask you something?" the brunette asked and if she hadn't been so sincere in the shyness of her tone the ghost might have turned her down.

"Sure."

"How did you die?"

There was that thick silence again. Arizona's expression went hard and Callie immediately regretted asking.

"Can we maybe save that for some other time?" Arizona asked and Callie just nodded feeling a weight in her chest after asking something so personal.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"I know." Arizona cut her off. "So, Calliope, are you from Seattle?"

Somehow Callie's heart sank deeper. "No, no, I'm from Miami."

The blonde tilted her head and asked "What are you doing all the way up here then? The job offer couldn't have been better than that Miami sun."

"The job offer certainly helped."

Arizona noted the darkness of her company's voice and tried to think of a way to change the subject away from them. Clearly neither of them were up for a personal story time.

"Thanks for making that popcorn, I love the smell. It kills me that I can't eat it."

"It kills you huh?" Callie teased.

"Shut up." Arizona smiled, exposing dimples that hadn't been shown in years and a smile that Callie thought might be the cure to all her heartache, at least in that moment.

They sat there for a moment in that comfortable silence they seemed to create.

"Are you real?" Callie then asked. Her voice was small and broke the heart Arizona didn't even have. She had no reason to care about this person in her home. It would be so easy to change the course and make this place only hers again. That's what she had been fighting for, right? But everything that kept her tied down to this spinning rock told her that maybe, just maybe she needed to give a little for once. She rarely gave a piece of herself away to anyone when she was alive and certainly not while she was dead. Perhaps caring was something her soul needed all along. So she scooted a little closer to the broken and scared Latina that sat in front of her.

"I'm completely real." and then she reached out and pushed the hair away from Callie's face. "See?"

Callie felt the coldness and the most comforting sensation. She gave a nod but didn't look up. How could she let her guard down? She moved away a bit, needing some space. That sense of overwhelming uncertainty filled her again and she quickly moved off the couch.

"I should get to bed. It's getting late and the cable man will be here tomorrow. Plus there is still some cleaning to do." She let out one hurried breath, backing away from the couch and Arizona.

"Yeah, of course. I'll leave you be."

Callie hurried away to the stairs but then stopped. Looking back towards the living room and the ghost she had left there she called out "Will you come around for breakfast? I'll let you smell my waffles if you like!"

She heard a quiet chuckle. "I wouldn't miss it."

Smiling the tired brunette climbed the stairs, brushed her teeth, and flopped down in her bed. For a while she starred at the ceiling wondering how things would progress. Did befriending the dead happen to others or was this just something fate had twisted out for her? As a surgeon she believed in the science and science told her that ghosts weren't real. But either science was wrong or she had discovered something amazing; she liked the second option.

For a while she let the memories of those dimples she had seen earlier fill her mind's eye. With the promise of a morning spent with what she hoped to be a new friend the sleepy brunette let darkness take over and sleep come.

Normally it took a very long time for Callie to get out of bed. She would have to set more than one alarm at least an hour early just to maybe get up on time, which wasn't exactly the best trait for a surgeon but hey she loved her sleep. This morning however she was up before ten and had already started brewing coffee and mixing some waffle batter. The quiet morning was bothering her so she turned on the radio to something upbeat.

She had no idea that she had a certain blonde watching while she danced around the kitchen singing to herself.

Arizona then materialized on the counter giggling. "Are you always like this in the morning? You didn't strike me as a morning person."

"No way, this is a complete rare happenstance so enjoy it while you can." Callie winked. "Wanna dance, Casper?"

The dimpled smile that Callie was already addicted to showed itself, lighting up the entire kitchen. "Turn up that music."

For the next hour or so they danced, moving around one another perfectly. Callie managed to cook and dance at the same time and before long she had a stack of waffles. She was completely out of breath, unlike Arizona who teased her for even needing to breath to begin with.

Flopping down at her table with her breakfast Callie turned to her new friend. "Does it smell good?" "Arizona just nodded.

"It's a shame you can't eat anything."

"I guess. Could be worse though, at least I still have a couple of my senses" Arizona sighed. "I'd be happier to get my ability to touch stuff back"

Callie stopped chewing and thought that over. "If you can't touch anything then how are you sitting on that chair?"

"I'm not actually. It's more like skilled hovering. I can manage that and figured out how to manipulate the air around me, as you've seen."

"Well maybe it's like that then? You just need to practice moving and touching things."

"So you know all about being a ghost now?" Arizona's tone was a bit harsher than she intended.

Callie was quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts.

"No. I just figured...from what I've heard or seen some ghosts are able to and even though all my knowledge comes from the media some truth must be there. I was just trying to help."

"I know, I know. I've heard of some but it's not as if the dead hang out and teach each other. In all the time I've been dead, I've only ever met maybe two others."

"And how long has that been?" Callie asked, hoping to get some answers about Arizona without making her angry. She was getting fond of her but still knew almost nothing about her. There was some more silence.

"It will be six years next month." Arizona finally answered, her voice caught in her throat. More silence.

"Wanna dance some more?" Callie finally asked hoping to liven the mood.

Arizona looked up at her with a small smile. "Yeah, if you can keep up!"

"Watch it, Casper!" Callie laughed

"Ugh, that's gonna stick isn't it?" Arizona groaned, her face a playful grimace.

"You betcha. Now come on, I still have some moves you haven't seen."

Arizona watched Callie walk back towards the radio. "I bet you do." She muttered to herself with a smirk, glad to get a glance at the Latina's backside.

(AN: Thank you all for the reviews so far and hopefully those to come. I promise things about Arizona and her death will eventually be answered.)


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